Mat Rong (Dragon’s Eye) island, a part of Bai Dong island, located in the southern edge of Halong bay, charms anyone by its profusely green space and pristine scenery. It’s well-known for an alluring turquoise lake devilishly distinctive shaped like a dragon’s eye.
Mat Rong is deserved to be dubbed as “the most beautiful desert island in the Gulf of Tokin. If untouched places are your travel taste, it is completely suited to you, a very ideal spot for beach camping and discovery.
That little island is octopus-shaped, with a big head and twisted long tentacles. In the middle of this island – in the middle the octopus head, there is a circular lake, which is called “dragon’s eye”, though the name “octopus’s eye” seems to be more precise.
My family reached Cam Pha city, went to Vung Duc wharf, and asked the locals – who have navigated to all corners from Bai Tu Long bay, across Halong bay then rounding to Lan Ha bay during their whole lifetime, but none of them knew the island named Mat Rong. I described things that some travelers shared on the internet. They burst out laughing and informed that they had never ever heard this name, but the circular lake as depiction was on an island located 20km from the mainland, and took 1 hour by wooden boat.
After 30 minutes transferring by speedboat, my family got into a crescent-shaped basin adjacent to a long beach roughly 30m wide when the tide hadn’t reached its highest point yet, and three sides were all karst mountains. My whole family shouted for joy thanks to magnificence and being unspoiled. The boat-owner felt anxious for us and asked whether we thought carefully about camping on this island, because there were no freshwater and cellphone radio wave in there, and it was possibly unsafe. But that proposal was immediately dismissed. As soon as the boat stopped, the kids urged one another to jump down the island and seek a place to set camp.
The location selected for encamping was a plot full of “beach morning glory”, as a signal indicated that the tide seldom rose here. Our camp adjoined foot of a mountain, at starting position of a gently sloping pass, so as to avoid flood if a heavy rain happened. It is a favorable location also because it had shady forest trees to prevent sunburn.
Passing over this small pass covered with luxuriant plants, a different space appeared. In the heart of this island, there was no land, just a circular lake like mouth of a gigantic well about 100 meters in diameter. This giant well was enclosed by lofty rock formation. Messed green canopies jutting out from cliffs touched the water surface. Queer green of the water made the scenery infinitely spectacular and mysterious. The water was salty, though its color was unlike color of sea, and lighter. Perhaps the lake connected to the ocean through underground caves. Edges of the well had exotic seaweed species, which were unusually found in sea and freshwater wetlands.
Maybe hundreds of millions of years ago, this island was a fecund karst summit. Time, rain, wind and wave have washed away all things. Basically, there was no soil left in the outside of the island. Calcium in stone had been eroded, only black cores of rock remaining, as rigid as steel, and sharp pieces stacked in layers. Plant species here, if has been existed, also hard like steel, rooting deeply in cracks. The branches and leaves were all dry in a strange way. Walking along foot of rock formations, it led to a small sandy shore, which just disclosed at low tide.
The boat left, the island and the green bay became strangely quiet. My mother hang up a hammock and rest under canopy. My younger brothers made ready with gears to fish and prepare a fire to cook lunch, while I led my kids to discover the island.
After full stomachs, we lied under fresh, green canopy in pure breezes threading through mountain sides and listened to jungle twitters in harmony, feeling so refreshed. The island had a lot of birds, chattering in groves. Crows and hawks flied nonstop.
In the afternoon, the water was fairly cold, but the children were still excited about sea bathe. The beach seemed to be our own, absolutely free. Faint sunlight of the afternoon made swarms of “dĩns” (a kind of insect) rushed out and attacked us like squadrons of Kamikaze (Divine Wind) had attacked Pearl Harbor. We made bonfires to create a safe zone. So, our desire to continue to explore the island was dashed due to that tiny evil geniuses.
After the dinner with boiled chicken and instant noodles, out frightened evening started by distant thunders. Winds stopped blowing, air was sultry before the storm, and “dĩn” swarms in darkness became extremely aggressive. None of us dared to go far away exceedingly 2m from the fire though the evening just started. The inside of the tents was very sweltering, while getting out, it was so easy to be bitten by “dins”. Although we sprayed insect repellent all over our body, the hungry mass of “dins” was overcrowded, swarms to other swarms plunged into, even both sucked blood and took advance of leaning on our leg and arm hair. We drove our kids into the tents, fanned them so as they slept, and hoped that the night would pass rapidly.
Wind was strong little by little, rain began to fall. All of us hastily got into the tents, covered the tents with canvas tightly, blocked all corners with rocks, and tied ropes to resist against squalls. Lying in tent, I heard the sound of the torrential rain louder and louder. Winds gusted and roared as though wanting to kick all the tents and people up the mountain top. Trying to reassure the kids, whereas I couldn’t stop fearing, especially as the tide still kept on rising, and sound of wave outside had been very close to the entrances, while there remained another two hours, the tide just peaked. The worry lasted until 2a.m, when the tide started to go down, winds diminished, rain was less torrential, and fatigued sleep came to us.
Nearly 5a.m, the rain stopped and the eastern sky background lit up pink hue. There was 3 hours left, the speedboat just got there as the appointment made previously. However, none of us liked to continue this uncompleted journey of discovery because we were too weary. We found dry branches inside a tight cliff, made a big fire to avert “dins”, and waited. At exactly 8a.m, the boat came, and our adventure on this horrible island swiftly ended.
Come back home, I appoint to return this island on next time with a more thorough preparation, at least there has to have a ship to shelter when a thunderstorm occurs, a small boat to reveal Mat Rong island, long sleeve clothes, and effective insect repellents.
By Pham Trung Tuyen